Kind of a silly question, but one I'm sure most people here will have an opinion on.

It's one of the oldest and most well-known game franchises out there, and there has been at least one new entry on every Nintendo system ever released (except the Virtual Boy). Which game would you consider the "best" or "quintessential" entry in the Legend of Zelda series? In other words, if you could only have ONE to have and to pass on to your kids, which one would it be?

I gotta go with TP on this one, not an easy choice though. They are all excellent games, I have not played Minish Cap or Phantom Hourglass though, but aside from that the two that really stand out the most to me is OoT and TP.

I still love the original and Link to the Past as well as the GB/GBC ones, but I find that I have a hard time picking them up and playing all the way through them, OoT and TP are the only ones I actually got all the way through and really enjoyed, but TP was just spectacular. The reason why I chose it is because it's an all around fun game and still remains challenging, but not to the point where you want to rip every fucking hair out of your head playing it.

I found that I enjoyed all of the dungeons in it, they were all very unique and enjoyable, on OoT I always would dread the Water Temple. I also like the way the storyline played out, and the ending was solid, boss fights in all. My only complaint is I felt like it was pretty slow starting; you spend a few hours doing some pretty linear stuff at the beginning. I guess because at that time I was comparing it to OoT which gets going really quick.

Link To The Past for me. What's interesting is it was only 2 years ago that I first played it, so I have no real nostalgia for the game. I just genuinely found it better than other Zeldas I had played like OOT.

As for TP...well, I never beat it. First time I've ever got bored of a Zelda game. Just seemed to drag in a lot of places and I hated all the wolf stuff.

I loved Link's Awakening -- first game I had and played on my GameBoy Color. I still haven't finished the SNES version yet, but OoT stands out as the best game for me.

While I really enjoyed TP and liked the game a lot, I felt that I didn't spend enough time in any one location enough to get a feel for the people or environments. Nothing was really that memorable in it, and I really don't see myself playing through it again. I did love the Temple of Time though. The references to OoT and everything made me really enjoy that part.

I'm apparently very unusual in that the original is still my favorite. To be fair though, I don't think I've played Link to the Past nearly enough for the praise it often gets. I've put maybe a couple hours over the years total into it. It has mostly to do with the cart always being expensive for some stupid reason (demand I guess, considering it sold millions on the SNES), and not ever renting it back in the day.

Here's how I would roughly order them...

The Legend of Zelda (NES)
Link's Awakening (GB) (I enjoyed this one really a lot, but I got stuck and never beat it. I sold the cart and regret it now... I might rebuy it)
Link to the Past (SNES)
Oracle of Seasons/Ages (GBC)
Twilight Princess (Wii)
Ocarina of Time (N64)
The Wind Waker (Cube)
Zelda 2: Link's Adventure (NES)
Phantom Hourglass (DS)

Majora's Mask (N64)
The Minish Cap (GBA)

The last two I haven't played, so I seperated them.

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You have to believe everything that has ever gone wrong in the history of your country was due to Liberals.

A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time and Link's Awakening are the best 3, I couldn't pick a favourite. Link's Awakening is often looked over when people list the best games in the series, but in some ways the limitations of the platform mean it's the purest game of the lot and it's where the trading sequences we see now originated from, if you've not played it, do, it's awesome.

The series has really lost focus lately, Twilight Princess was disappointing, Phantom Hourglass is really average, Wind Waker was great but ruined by the sailing, it's still one of my favourite series ever- I've got more hours clocked on Zelda 1 than just about any game ever, but I wish they'd simplify things; there's a few annoyances that have become part of the Zelda world now, like huge spaces with nothing going on... yes we all stared in awe when we first saw hyrule field in OOT, but boating for 10 minutes with virtually nothing going on and strolling around the maps of TP isn't epic, it's dull.

Its a tie up between Zelda 64 and Zelda Link to the past. I almost want to say Twilight Princess, but considering I haven't touched it since I beat it I dunno. I picked Link to the Past though. When I look back it really offered a lot considering what technology they had at the time. Its easy to want to pick a newer game, but I have clocked in more hours on Link the Past then I have any other Zelda game. I have been through Zelda 64 quite a few times as well, thats why it was so hard for me to choose. If I could pick two Zelda 64 would be up there, then followed by Twilight Princess.

I didn't really care too much for Awaking, I mean it wasn't bad but it wasn't that great IMO.

Link's Awakening. The first zelda game i had played and beaten and one of the first gameboy games i had (i got the dx version). looking back on it, its full of a ton of small little great touches that just aren't found anymore. being able to have any two items equipped at once, the combo weapons, stealing from the shop, being punished for stealing from the shop, the chomp-chomp in the first town, and the goombas.

they really don't make games like link's awakening anymore.

BTW, the sailing was not boring in Wind Waker, you had stuff to do plus you could, well, control the wind to your favor. now phantom hourglass, THAT's pointless sailing.

People always give me shit when I saw the Windwaker was my favorite. Its really a toss up between windwaker and a link to the past for me though. I may have like ocarina of time more if I had played it back in the day, instead of on the vc a few months ago.

Also Twilight Princess was very dissapointing for me, I played through it like a chore (especially the whole wolf thing which sucked). $10 for Ocarina of time on the vc is a better pick than $50 for TP.

I'm not a huge Zelda fan. I enjoy the games, but I just don't have the attention span for epic adventure games. Twilight Princess is the only Zelda game I've finished, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Sooo...my vote goes to TP.

If I'd been asked a few years ago, I would have unequivocally said Link to the Past. It really is the basic and perfect representation of everything that is Zelda, without any rough edges or nasty bits.

However, I have to honestly admit that I like Twilight Princess better. It certainly unseated Ocarina as the best 3D iteration of the game, and while there are some unconventional elements for the series, I really think it does a great job of conveying the Zelda experience in an epic way.

I liked Ocarina, but I had some problems with it. The world was large, which was almost a detriment--it was quite sparsely populated, and it felt like it took forever to actually DO anything in that game. Aiming projectiles was also a royal pain with the analog stick...and some of the dungeons felt tedious. (For example: the water temple was a huge pain, the forest temple was neat but had horribly grating music, and Jabu-Jabu was disorienting and the graphics just simply weren't up to snuff for what they were trying to accomplish with that level).

Twilight Princess, on the other hand: it felt formulaic, just like all Zelda games...however the world was quite full and varied...despite the huge overworld, it never seemed to drag or get tedious the way Ocarina did. Each location naturally flowed into the next, rather than feeling like an abrupt change of set. Each location felt more robust--there was more to do in the game, more people to talk to, more individual places to go and little things to notice. The world felt more "full." The wolf aspect was an interesting addition, and they kept those segments short enough that you still spent the bulk of the game how you should: as Link. The levels were well-designed and interesting, and the music and atmosphere and storytelling surpass every other game in the series, while still keeping everything very firmly rooted in Zelda tradition. It also had a really fun and satisfying final boss fight.

If you were only to play ONE, I'd have to call it a toss-up between Link to the Past and Twilight Princess.

If you were going to make an essentials list, I'd say
3D: TP
2D: LttP
Handheld: Link's Awakening

Link's Awakening was actually my favorite for a long time. It was the first video game cartridge (period) I ever owned; it came with the grey-brick Gameboy I got for my 10th birthday, so there's some sentimental value as well. I got stuck at one point in the middle for a long time, though...something that happened to me in every Zelda game except Twilight Princess and the Oracle games.

However, where TP makes sure you know what to DO to stay on task, the Oracle games FORCE you to stay on track. The world felt constrained, with everything that wasn't relevant to what you were doing at the time blocked off for one reason or another. The story felt like a flimsy excuse to propel the game...yes, I know the Zelda formula is pretty repetitive and formulaic already...but it's at least a fun/decent/familiar story. The Oracle games felt unusually half-hearted.

Wind Waker has the opposite problem. It's too easy to get lost or forget what you're doing, and while it may be a little tedious trekking through open plains in Ocarina, the ocean in WW is a giant drag. I actually had sessions where I set my course and put the controller down to go make a snack, because I had to get to a distant point on the map and it takes forever.

Phantom Hourglass (which, in all fairness, I'm only halfway through) is caught in the middle. It's a fun game, and the control scheme definitely adds something new, but it feels a little tired. It's a very on-task game with clear pointers and very few side quests, but the navigation--while not as bad as Wind Waker's--feels tiresome and pointless.

And speaking of handhelds: Minish Cap was fun, and I don't have any complaints about it, but it did feel distinctly more RPG-ish.

DaMadFiddler wrote: It also had a really fun and satisfying final boss fight.

Did we play the same TP?

The level was absolutely HUGE and very lightly populated. Nothing was memorable, and to be honest I can't remember what anything in this game was called. There were far too many moments where absolutely nothing happened, and the pace slowed to a turtle's crawl. OoT's towns and cities had a more of a 'cozy' feel. For example take Kakariko village. In TP it was huge, and there were all the stores along one row, like a strip mall. In OoT it felt like an actual European town. There were people everywhere doing things, and all of the houses had something or someone inside of them.

Granted, I sort of rushed through TP, and I intend on playing it through on GameCube... but at this point I really don't think there was anything memorable about TP at all. The final boss fight left me wanting so much more, and just felt like a standard fight. Overall it felt disjointed, and while the story seemed to 'flow' into one another more, the overarching story didn't hold me as tight as it did in OoT.